Steve Smith returned from a four-game absence to score 23 points
and Christian Laettner added 20 and nine rebounds, leading the
Atlanta Hawks to a 98-80 victory over the Charlotte Hornets.

Atlanta (13-2), coming off a 109-104 double-overtime win over
Toronto on Wednesday, increased its Central Division lead over
the Hornets (9-5) to 3 1/2 games. Smith missed three games with
back spasms and another due to a death in the family but
returned to make his presence felt.

Dikembe Mutombo chipped in with 14 rebounds and 10 points and
Mookie Blaylock had nine asssists for the Hawks, who are 8-1 at
home this season and 7-1 against Central Division opponents.
They set a club record with 13 November wins.

Atlanta is 6-1 at the Georgia Dome and 2-0 at Georgia Tech. Its
start is the second-best in franchise history, trailing only the
16-1 start of the 1967-68 St. Louis Hawks. Current Hawks coach
Lenny Wilkens averaged 20 points per game for that squad.

Glen Rice scored 19 points to lead Charlotte, which beat Atlanta
in three of four meetings last season. Vlade Divac and Anthony
Mason each added nine points and seven boards.

"I don't think we played very good tonight. We got wide-open
shots, we just didn't make them," said Charlotte coach Dave
Cowens. "We were running the pick-and-rolls and getting guys
wide open, we just weren't making open jump shots.

"Against certain teams you're not going to get layups because
they've got a big guy that's a shot-blocker. Then you've got to
play on the outside. It's hard to win a game when you're
shooting 20 or 30 percent the entire game. Plus, we didn't play
with a whole lot of spirit."

Atlanta's defense limited Charlotte to 34 percent (26-for-76)
shooting from the field and just 18 percent (2-for-11) from
three-point range. Rice shot 5-for-13, while Divac and Mason
were both 3-for-8.

"I have no idea what happened tonight. I don't know what's
going on," Rice said. "We're not going out and doing the things
that we were doing for us to get to this point, which is playing
hard on the defensive end and getting the ball to the right
people. People have gotten comfortable figuring it's going to
come easy and that's how it (winning) can stop."

"If you let a shooter (Rice) get rhythm, then no matter what you
do, he's gonna score," said Wilkens. "I don't want to give
anybody an easy shot. If you're gonna play for me, you're gonna
play defense. That's the way it is."

The Hawks outrebounded their opponent for the 14th time in 15
games, holding a 45-39 edge on the glass.

Atlanta increased a 44-34 halftime lead to 71-58 entering the
final period. The Hawks enjoyed their most productive third
quarter of the season, scoring 27 points, with Smith tallying
10. Charlotte got no closer than nine points thereafter.

Wilkens was particularly pleased with his bench. Chucky Brown
and rookiee Ed Gray each scored eight points and Greg Anderson
had six and four rebounds.